Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes To Get A Rewrite From The Wolverine Screenwriter

Mark Bomback has found a niche for himself in Hollywood rewriting big blockbusters. His most recent gig was going back over the Christopher McQuarrie script for James Mangold's The Wolverine, and now the same studio has brought him back to work on another one of their big upcoming tentpoles.

THR reports that 20th Century Fox has hired Bomback to write a new draft for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, the upcoming sequel to Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Amanda Silver and Rick Jaffa, who also wrote the script for the critically lauded first movie, wrote the original draft of the new film and will hand over the pen to the new writer. The trade notes that Bomback actually has experience with the franchise as he "he did uncredited script doctoring" on the last one. The new story follows Caesar (Andy Serkis) as he leads his ape brethren to overthrow human society.

What makes this news somewhat surprising is that the last time we heard about the project there was word that Fox really liked the script that Silver and Jaffa had written. Perhaps they just want to get a new set of eyes on it?

The new film is now set to be directed by Matt Reeves, as the Let Me In helmer replaced Rupert Wyatt on the project earlier this month - after beating out a number of high-profile directors for the gig. Production is scheduled to begin rather soon in advance of the planned May 23, 2014 release date (remember how much CGI went into the first one).